


Sweet Dreams

by Nitrobot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Evil Loki, F/M, Manipulative Loki, Natasha Feels, Pillow Talk, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 05:34:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4509768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They make a cute couple when they're not trying to kill each other. And it'd probably help if the boyfriend wasn't locked away for war crimes, but they make do with what they have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I loved Age of Ultron, I did dislike the kinda out-of-nowhere Black Widow/Hulk relationship (mostly cause no canon Black Widow/Hawkeye, boohoo). So I make do with what was once second and is now first best: Blackfrost. 
> 
> I theorise that Loki can make solid holograms of himself because... magic, bitch.  
> Also it's my birthday so I'm pretty much gifting this to myself.

The first time Loki visited her, it took her a week afterwards to convince herself that he wasn't there. The second time, it took her a month and some ill-advised doses of vodka.

After the third instance, she started to lose count. At some point she asked him why he was wasting his time playing around with mortals- did the mighty 'God' not have anything better to do?

No, she found out, he didn't. Not when all he had of his home was an enchantment-proof box in the family basement, where all the unwanted scum of Asgard was locked away out of sight and mind. Loki bored easily, and his powers still worked in other realms. For some reason Earth (or 'Midgard') managed to amuse him, despite the "sad, pathetic lives of its inhabitants". 

As for why Natasha had become his unwilling anchor to Earth... in his words, she was the least pathetic of them. That was more of a compliment than she was usually willing to allow, but any time she tried to fight him her hand just phased harmlessly through his cheek. 

He explained it as 'cross-dimensional projecting'; sending a dynamic image of himself from Asgard to Earth. Natasha had seen a similar party trick before during his display in Germany, where there'd been too many of him to shoot at, but this was something else altogether. When he wasn't avoiding her wrath she could see the refined details of his clothes, the creases of his smirks, the permanent glitter of smugness in his eyes. She could _feel_ him most of all, solid touches behind an icy aura. His voice... Natasha did not believe in ghosts, but it haunted her like one all the same. 

In short, it made for some pretty surreal sex. She quickly got used to it, though. 

It was actually comforting lying with someone- or, a projection of someone, or whatever it was- without worrying about them gutting her in her sleep. Of course, Loki was the most likely candidate to do so, but illusionary weapons wouldn't do much harm to her and he couldn't really hide them if he was naked. 

She was almost asleep while he idly twirled a strand of her hair around a finger, as if spinning a dagger. "And what word of me has reached your... friends?" With his mouth so close to her ear she didn't miss the turn of his tone, but as usual it was another few moments until she'd fully recognised it. 

Her answer was the same as always, muttered against a pillow and the chill of the autumn night. "I'm not telling you."

She felt pouting lips graze a cold line down the side of her face and press into her neck with a low groan. "Not even if I say 'please'?"

Natasha praised him for trying a new tactic, but she wouldn't be budged. "No."

There was a pause, a shift in the air, then his head lifted suddenly from the cleft of her neck. "Why didn't that work?"

"Hm?" She rolled herself over as much as she could be bothered, just enough to see the confusion on Loki's face.

"It's a magic word, isn't it?" he asked. "Surely Midgardians know even simple enchantments?"

With sleep muddying her mind it took a second longer than it should have for Natasha to work it out, and she was stifling a rare laugh through a smothered smile. "Not... magic in the way you'd think."

Loki glanced away for a moment, still perplexed and not seeing the humour. "Next you'll be saying you don't actually have any winged swine in this realm."

That didn't help with the laughter situation, and one actually bubbled out before she could stop it. Loki tilted his head almost curiously, watching her trying to calm herself. 

"You don't often smile so much," he observed when she'd re-gathered her composure, propping his head up on an arm.

Natasha rolled around fully to face him, still keeping to her pillow. "Maybe I'm drunk." With how light she felt, she might as well have been.

Loki smirked at the suggestion. "I've seen you drunk, dear, and you wouldn't be talking if that was the case."

Natasha wasn't even going to try to remember when that must have happened, closing her eyes with a yawn. "Here's some more Midgard wisdom for you; curiosity killed the nosy Asgardian."

Her eyes opened just in time to catch his look of amusement spreading out. So he wasn't as literal as she first thought. "A lot about our... situation has me curious," he confessed, bracing himself up right with an arm and watching her again like some cautious wolfhound. The ice in his eyes was that of a predator, at least. "What has caused the Black Widow to let a lover into her web?"

Because this widow liked mates who'd put up a good fight. Natasha smiled faintly at the thought and shrugged for a more innocent answer. "You're not the only one who gets bored."

The ice was starting to melt by slow degrees. "I can imagine," Loki said with a twitch of a smile. "But I know I'd be the last choice any sane mortal would take, when she has a whole selection of others to pick from." He raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. "Not even my illustrious brother has provoked your interest."

Natasha wasn't sure where he was going with this, but it was guaranteed to be somewhere dark. Though maybe that would help her sleep easier. "Like you said, they're just friends," she deflected. "Teammates. People who are surprisingly good at saving the world on occasion."

"You've convinced me of that on all but one account."

The room became winter, and Natasha's breath froze in the air. Her bare skin prickled all over with goosebumps, and Loki smiled in a much worse way.

"Do you want to know what I saw in Barton's mind?" he asked slowly, gradually pulling himself closer to her. Her lips were too frozen to protest, but he was going to tell her anyway. "Behind the superficial love of family and duty, buried just deep enough I thought I wouldn't find it... he was always thinking of you. And I wondered why until I saw you for myself."

Natasha only managed to make eye contact with him when he brought his face down against hers, whispering against her forehead. "You loved him, didn't you?"

Her lips thawed out with the heat of her denial. "Love-"

"-is for children," he finished for her. "I remember the claim well. But you never were a child, were you, Natasha?" He was twirling her hair again, cradling her to his chest like a parody of lovemaking. "Even a _monster_ like me was allowed to run the halls of the Palace before I stained them with blood-"

The fists she had readied since the freeze broke out lashed out against him, shattering his illusion of comfort. She shoved herself out the bed and trailed her blanket behind her, only seeing his hologram reforming as she gathered the sheets to shield her nudity. 

"I've ruined the mood again, haven't I?" Loki asked with a sad smile she wanted to punch into pulp. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of attention though. She'd sleep in her living room, away from the cold, and he'd be gone by morning like a bad dream.

"I'll show myself out, then." His sighing laugh latched onto her even as she slammed the bedroom door shut.


End file.
